Dear visitor, welcome to SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers. If this is your first visit here, please read the Help. It explains how this page works. You must be registered before you can use all the page's features. Please use the registration form, to register here or read more information about the registration process. If you are already registered, please login here.

Solenoid wiring help

I have an old Toro system installed back in 1997 with a Toro GreenKeeper Control Box and have 6 zones. I had to change a solenoid the other day and if are looking down where the control valve with the solenoids attached I removed the middle solenoid which also meant I had to remove wires on the left solenoid as well and then had to order the solenoid and diaphram. But did I mark the wires so when the solenoid came in I could put it together? HECK NO!! Now I do know which wire goes to what. like i said the vales if you look down there are three the right one is o.k and the middle and left are my problem child. I'm stupid when it comes to electrical so please talk in layman terms.

To make an extreme example, imagine all the wires are the same color. You would have to mark the ends of every wire currently connected to the controller's outputs with a numbered tag. Then you would take resistance measurements from each wire to every other wire, one at a time, and write down the measured resistance value on a grid chart. That can be a lot of measurements (45 measurements for 10 wires) - but it will pinpoint which of the unknown wires is the common. Once you are certain of the common, you can work out the rest.

To make an extreme example, imagine all the wires are the same color. You would have to mark the ends of every wire currently connected to the controller's outputs with a numbered tag. Then you would take resistance measurements from each wire to every other wire, one at a time, and write down the measured resistance value on a grid chart. That can be a lot of measurements (45 measurements for 10 wires) - but it will pinpoint which of the unknown wires is the common. Once you are certain of the common, you can work out the rest.